Dodgers respond forcefully after Dave Roberts called out Cardinals’ Miles Mikolas

A few weeks ago, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas had some choice words for the Dodgers, his opponents at Chavez Ravine on Cardinals Opening Day. He said LA was playing "checkbook baseball," and that "it would be great to stick it to [them]."

On Thursday, Dave Roberts had a response. He was cool about things, saying that he'd known Mikolas for a long time and that he "can sound off but I don’t think anyone pays too much attention." Leave it to Doc to come back with a perfect soundbite in the face of petty jealousy.

Mikolas took the mound at 1:10 p.m. PST, and by the bottom of the third had already given up three hits, a walk, and two runs to LA on a Freddie Freeman RBI single and a Max Muncy sac fly. Was he sticking it to the Dodgers then?

And then Mookie Betts stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the third and cranked his second home run of the season. Shohei Ohtani walked, then Freeman came back up to do exactly what he was put behind Betts and Ohtani to do. He hit a two-run home run to make it 5-0. Was Mikolas sticking it to the Dodgers then?

Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman blast home runs off of Miles Mikolas in Dodgers Home Opener after disrespectful comments about LA

Meanwhile, Tyler Glasnow gave up one hit to Paul Goldschmidt in the first but looked perfect otherwise, with three strikeouts over three innings. Goldschmidt may be a problem for Glasnow, though — and we can tip our caps when it's due — because he responded to Betts and Freeman's homers with one of his own at the top of the fourth.

Even so, these Dodgers are already looking good. Ohtani doubled in his first at-bat in home whites (we'd be remiss not to mention that he was called out at second after a base running error) and Will Smith singled for his first hit after his 10-year extension.

By the middle of the fourth, Mikolas' ERA was a big, fat 15.00. We'll keep waiting for him to stick it to the Dodgers, though. Any day now.

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